Brussels – Climate change is putting honey production under strain. Within the European Union, output is starting to decline due to extreme weather conditions, and the single market is becoming a target for foreign “Made in” and low-quality products, the result of mixtures, additives, and alterations that jeopardize producers and consumer quality. The EU Commission has a specific programme, complete with deadlines, to tackle what is becoming a real plague, aiming to resolve the problems within three years.
“The Commission will adopt — by 14 June 2028 — implementing acts laying down analytical methods to detect honey adulteration, and — by 14 June 2029 — delegated acts on methods and criteria to determine the place where honey has been harvested and Union-wide traceability requirements,” explains Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen. “All these measures aim to create fair conditions for EU producers.”
Hansen’s clarifications respond to a parliamentary question from the EPP that reports that honey production in Cyprus is declining “significantly, with losses of up to 30 per cent, on account of extreme weather events linked to climate change,” as well as increasing pressure from low-cost imported honey products, especially Chinese.
However, the problem also affects Italy closely. The National Honey Observatory, in its 2024 annual report, highlights the same issues recorded in Cyprus. In 2024, Italian national production stood at 21,850 tonnes, “a slight decrease compared to 2023, accompanied for the first time by a slight decline in the number of beehives.” This is due to “adverse” weather conditions, with “significant temperature fluctuations in the spring,” followed by heavy rainfall and a dry, hot summer, resulting in a “prolonged lack of nectar flow.” These weather conditions, the National Honey Observatory points out, “confirm that climate change is the main, but not the only, limiting factor” for production in the last decade.
This is therefore a problem for “Made‑in‑Italy” honey, which provides work to over 77,000 beekeepers, is worth 34 million euros, and generates exports of 5,730 tonnes worldwide, across both EU and non‑EU markets. The issue raised in the European Parliament is very much an Italian one as well, and the measures announced and scheduled by Hansen will be just as important for Italy.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
